Ben Davis says, “If I worked for an agency or wrote for The Drum, I might ask “What the f#@k is strategy?” – this four letter word seems more apposite, given the amount of fluff written about digital strategy in particular.One agency man, Justin Small (Chief Strategy Officer at The BIO Agency) is indeed asking this question, as the founder of the Future Strategy Club, a newly formed group that meets to discuss what strategy means now.After listening to Justin’s impassioned claim that strategy is stuck in the mud, I thought I should attempt to summarise his thoughts... [...]

Brian Wood says, “Title tags are a meaningful on-page ranking factor and are among the most influential factors in determining click-through rate (CTR) from search engine results pages. Higher CTR not only drives more traffic immediately, it also improves organic rankings when combined with good on-site metrics.Title tag CTR is also difficult to test: it requires a large number of pages that drive a lot of organic visits, and a pretty big chunk of time — usually around two months to give Google time to index all the pages in the test and then collect enough data to have statistically... [...]

Bola Awoniyi says, “You can’t go anywhere on social media without seeing the Stories format being used.If that statement was said a year ago, when it was exclusively being used by Snap in its flagship app, it would have been followed by statements proclaiming that the company has crossed the chasm and will undoubtedly be the third digital marketing megapower behind Facebook and Google.Life can come at you fast though, especially when you’re in the consumer tech space.In less than 12 months, the Stories format is now prevalent on the Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook... [...]

Megan Hannay says, “Just last October at the Street Fight Summit, many marketers ranked voice search as the most “over-hyped” marketing tactic of the year. I think this is because many of them aren’t seeing the full scope of the technology. We’re putting on our consumer brains and thinking about the current awkwardness of speaking to Siri in public, not of a future inside self-driving cars or those moments when we just don’t want to get up from the couch.Currently, most voice searches happen on mobile phones. But within the next few years, it seems likely that devices with... [...]

Julie Joyce says, “When it comes to being unlinkable, there’s a lot more to consider besides boring content, poor quality writing and low-end design. Of the many issues that could cause users not to want to link to your content, here are four major ones that I see all the time: intrusive intersitials, gated content, excessive pagination and avant-garde design.You can find someone to argue for and against all four of these barriers, and I’d probably see some of those points in the last three cases, but I’m not sure much can change my mind about interstitials.Intrusive interstitialsIt’s... [...]

David Moth says, “It only took eight some-odd years, but faced with stiff competition that has dented user growth and monetization, Twitter is finally considering a paid subscription offering.Here’s what you need to know about “Twitter Pro.”1. Twitter is currently researching whether there’s enough interest to make a go of it.First things first: while the possibility of a paid subscription offering is more than rumor – Twitter itself made an announcement – the company says that it’s currently conducting research and asking users for feedback, so there’s... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google announced updates to AdWords Dynamic Search Ads on Tuesday, including support for expanded text ads.Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) will transition to expanded text ads through April, bringing them in line with search and display campaigns.Google is introducing a new solution for DSAs called page feeds. Page feeds consist of two columns: Page URL and Custom Label. The feeds enable advertisers to designate exactly which landing pages to include in a DSA campaign. There are several benefits and use cases for page feeds, such as these:If advertisers only want DSAs... [...]

Brian Wood says, “Title tags are a meaningful on-page ranking factor and are among the most influential factors in determining click-through rate (CTR) from search engine results pages. Higher CTR not only drives more traffic immediately, it also improves organic rankings when combined with good on-site metrics.Title tag CTR is also difficult to test: it requires a large number of pages that drive a lot of organic visits, and a pretty big chunk of time — usually around two months to give Google time to index all the pages in the test and then collect enough data to have statistically... [...]

Barry Levine says, “There is no doubt the search industry has evolved. Just one look at how search engine results pages are currently laid out shows how things have changed. We have come a long way from 10 blue links.But have we gone far enough? At SXSW earlier this month, information access was a hot topic. People no longer head to Google’s search bar as their only way of accessing content.How we access information is changingSearch engines used to be the primary (or sole) place a consumer would turn to when they needed an immediate answer. You entered in a phrase, clicked a link... [...]

Andrew Goodman says, “PPC account managers are held to exacting performance standards. Their efforts are judged by KPIs like Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition).That sounds simple enough. But it’s a lot easier to set tough performance standards than to achieve them. As competition mounts, an account manager may decide to shorten their time horizon to four months instead of four years, figuring that keeping the gig is a lost cause. That leads to “Operation Obfuscate” — to fool the boss by the attributed conversion numbers, at least over the short term.This... [...]